Apparatus and method for mill rolling sheet metals to impart a desired crosssection thereto



1951 w. A. LE BOUEF, SR 3,009,511

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MILL ROLLING SHEET METALS T0 IMFART A DESIRED CROSS-SECTION THERETO 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 13, 1959 mm T m V m William A. Le Bouef,$r.

MN M M Nov. 21, 1961 w. A. LE BOUEF, 3,009,511

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MILL LING SHEET METALS T0 IMPART A DESIRED CROSS-SECTION THERETO 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 15, 1959 INVENTOR William A. Le Bouef,S|:

Bi E a 1 W RATTQRNEY NOV. 21, 1961 w LE BQUEF, 5R 3,009,511

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MILL ROLLING SHEET ETALS TO IMPART A DESIRED CROSS-SECTION THERETO Filed Feb. 13, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 o d N 8 E I q- I x v i I I l PIC-3.7.

William A. Le Bouef,S|:

1961 w. A. LE BOUEF, SR

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MILL ROLLING SHEET METALS T0 IMPART A DESIRED CROSS-SECTION THERETO 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Feb. 13, 1959 INVENTOR William A. Le Bouef, Sr.

w B3 MM MNMDJ atent APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MILL ROLLING SHEET METALS T IMPART A DESIRED CROSS- SECTION THERETO William A. LeBouef, Sr., 3563 Roger Williams, New Orleans, La. Filed Feb. 13, 1959, Ser. No. 733,142 4 Claims. (Cl. 153-77) The present invention relates to apparatus and method for mill rolling sheet metals to impart a desired crosssection thereto, and is a continuation-in-part of my similarly entitled application, Serial No. 668,231, filed June 26, 1957, and now abandons An object of the present invention is to provide a machine and method for receiving a roll of sheet meta-l, for example, a roll of steel of from 26 to 20 gauge and up to 1,000 feet in length and to subject the sheet of steel as it is unwound from a roll to the deforming action of opposed pairs of rolls arranged along the axial path of unwrapping of the roll whereby each set of rolls in the direction of unwrap of the sheet metal deforms the sheet in cross-section until the desired depth and shape of deformation is obtained.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for corrugating lengths or rolls of sheet metals such as steel, aluminum, brass, copper and the like by a continuous process whereby once the sheet has been introduced into the machine it is not withdrawn until completed, and wherein each corrugated sheet will be flat Without curling or bowing upwardly at its ends so that a plurality of the thus formed sheets can be stacked in a minimum of space. This latter objective is attained by maintaining the pressure setting on the last pair of rolls the same or slightly less than the pressure on the preceding or last set or pair of forming rolls.

A further object of the present invention is the provision of a corrugation section of a machine in which the Rockwell hardness of the sheet being formed may be varied transversely of the sheet by inclining the axis of the upper forming roll of each pair whereby a greater pressure is applied to one side of the sheet than to the other, the pressure decreasing transversely of the sheet from left to right or vice versa.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention will be more fully described hereinafter, and will be more particularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto.

In the drawings, wherein like symbols refer to like or corresponding parts throughout the several views:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of an apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of the metal cross-section forming station of the apparatus;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevational view of a portion of the forming station of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a vertical section taken on the line P4 in FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 5 is a diagrammatic view at an enlarged scale of the last three sets of rolls of the forming station of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 6 is a transverse section taken through the forming roller section of FIGURE 2, with parts broken away and parts shown in section;

FIGURE 7 shows fragmentary perspective views of several forms of corrugated sheets which are formed by the apparatus of the instant invention;

FIGURE 8 is a view similar to FIGURE 7 showing a modification to the machine structure employed when varying the Rockwell hardness of a'sheet being formed transversely thereof, and

FIGURE 9 is a transverse section taken through the sheet being formed in FIGURE 8.

Referring more particularly to the drawings and for the moment to FIGURE 1, the letter A designates a coil receiving means for receiving a coil of sheet metal, for example, 26 gauge steel sheet. The coil is designated at 10 and the sheet at 11. The sheet 11 is payed otf the coil 10 and is passed through a length measuring and cutting means B from which point the desired length of sheet is measured and cut. This measured and cut length of sheet is received upon a horizontal conveyor means C which advances the measured and cut sheet to the forming section of the machine designated at D. The measured and cut length is introduced into the forming section D where the desired transverse corrugated shape is imparted thereto after which the thus formed sheet is ejected from the forming station D onto a stacking station E where a plurality of the thus formed sheets are vertically stacked until a suflicient quantity or order has been run, at which time the sheets are than removed enstack from the stacking station E for transportation to their ultimate destination.

Referring to the coil receiving section A, the same consists merely of a means for rotatably journalling a coil of sheet metal. The length measuring and cutting station B consists of a linear foot measuring device and cutting shears for transversely cutting the sheet into desired lengths. The horizontal conveyor consists of a plurality of rolls journalled for free rotation and have passing thereover a belt conveyor of appreciable transverse width upon which the sheet will lie, and the belt being an endless belt will convey the sheet to the forming station D.

Referring more particularly to the forming section of the machine, attention is directed to FIGURES 2 through 5, inclusive. The forming station is mounted on a rigid firmly anchored base frame 12 and may consist of nine opposed pairs of forming rolls designated 13 through 21 inclusive, the upper roll being designated as 13 and the bottom roll 13a. Each section or each rolling station is so designated. Prior to introduction of a sheet of meas ured and cut metal entering the forming section 13 for ultimate passage on through all of the forming station rolls, there is provided a pair of feed rolls 22 which have their nip subjected to pressure for grasping and pulling the sheet to be formed and introducing the same and applying a positive driving motion to the sheet through the machine, In advance of the pressure rolls 22, as best seen'in FIGURE 4, is noted a hood means 23 which Will deflect the approaching sheet, whose leading edge tends to curl upwardly after having been cut, downwardly toward the nip of the pressurerolls 22. After-the sheet leaves the pressure rolls 22, it still tends to curl upwardly slightly and a hood housing 24 is provided for guiding the sheet into the nip of the first pair of forming rolls 13 and 13a.

The rolls receive their driving power from a motor 25 which imparts its drive to the line through a series of chain and sprocket drives. The motor first drives chain 26 through a conventional chain and sprocket drive. This chain 26 drives the lower roll 21'a of the final station 21 and roll'set 20 is driven by chain 27, While roll group 19 is driven by chain 28, roll group 18 being driven by chain E29, roll group 117 by chain 39, roll group 16 by chain 31, roll group 15 by chain 3-2, roll group r14 driven by chain 33 and the initial set of forming rolls 13 being driven by chain 34. A chain 35 drives the pressure or feed rolls 22. Chain 36 drives the belt and conveying mechanism of the horizontal conveyor C. It will be noted that this is a series chain drive arrangement in which two sprockets are provided on each bottom roll shaft, one sprocket receiving power and the other communicating power on to the next set. As noted in FIG- URE 2, these chains are staggered horizontally. It is to be noted that the top roll of the feed roll section 2.2. is geared to the bottom roll whereby a positive drive is imparted to both the upper and lower pair of feed rolls 22. This type of drive is not provided in the subsequent forming stations since only the bottom roll of each of the pairs of forming rolls is given a positive drive.

Referring now to FIGURE 6, standards or roll anchor means are provided which are rigidly secured to the machine bed 12 and consist of rigid vertical supports for receiving and rotatably journalling the lower and upper rolls of each pair. The pair of rolls illustrated in FIG- URE 6 are the rolls designated 20 and 2011. Each roll is provided with a plurality of axially spaced forming discs 20b which are rigidly spaced axially along the roller shafts 20 and 20a by spacer collars 200. The group of forming discs 20b and spacers 200, as best seen in FIG- URE 6, are retained in place by threaded locking means 20d at each end of the shaft. The forming discs of the upper roll of each pair of opposed forming rolls are staggered with respect to the forming discs of its companion lower forming roll. The diameters of the forming discs increase from station-to-station. The smaller diameter discs being on rolls 13 and the larger diameter discs being on rolls 20 and 21. The horizontal or axial spacing of the forming discs of each pair of forming rolls varies, being larger or of a greater transverse width at the rolling station 13 than at the station 21. The minimum transverse width of spacer is shown at 20c and stations 20 and 21 are identical. The bearing supports for the shafts are designated generally at 40 and are subjected to the pressure of a pressure plate 41 which is under the influence of a threaded pressure loading shaft 42 having a lock nut 43 thereon for maintaining the desired pressure and to prohibit backing off of same. As best seen at the righthand end of FIGURE 6, shaft 20a is provided with a double chain and sprocket drive as outlined above. The sheet being formed by the final forming station 20 is designated at 44. The amount of overlap between the peripheries of opposed pairs of forming roll discs is increased from station 13 through station 20. This progressive overlap imparts a formation to the metal by increments. This initially imparts a slight deformation to the sheet at station 13 and increases the deformation until the final form of the sheet is attained at roll station 20. Station 21 imparts only the final or stabilizing set to the sheet to prohibit its end curling when the sheets pass from the forming station D onto the stacking station E. If pressure on the pair of forming rolls 21 exceeds that of the final forming station 20, the sheet ejected from the forming station onto the stacking station E will curl and not lie fiat. This will not permit nesting of sheets for storage and shipping. It also will not provide a truly longitudinally fiat sheet. It has been found in practice that by maintaining the same setting pressure and overlapping distances as well as transverse spacing of forming discs at the final station 21 as at the preceding station 20, a perfectly longitudinally flat corrugated sheet is obtained.

Now considering the several rolling and forming stations 13 through 20, inclusive, each station has a pair of complemental rollers with axially spaced forming discs, with the discs of the upper roll staggered along the axis of the roll whereby the forming discs of the two rollers of a pair interfit and actually the peripheries of the forming rollers lap. The lap is at a minimum at station 13 and increases at each station, the value of lap at station114 being greater than that of station 13, etc. As the lap value of the peripheries of the forming discs of the various sets of rolls increases, the thickness of the forming discs at each succeeding station increases and as the thickness of forming discs increases the axial distance between adjacent discs of each pair of opposed forming rolls decreases. This permits the rolls at station 13, Where the lap value is minimum, forming disc diameter minimum, and discs spacing on the roll maximum, to impart a small indentation to the sheet metal which is characteristic of the final shape of corrugation at stations 20 and 21. Since the lap value of the forming discs of the rollers at each station from 13 through 20 increases, so does the depth of the corrugation of the sheet metal passed from station 13 through 20 between the forming rollers. By spacing the forming stations 13 through 20 apart along the line of movement through the machine, the desired corrugated characteristic is imparted to the sheet metal without setting up undue stresses and pressures in the sheet metal. In fact, the sheet metal passes easily from one forming station to another.

It will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that the desired corrugation to be imparted to the sheet, for instance, as shown in the forms of FIGURE '7, is controlled by the geometry of the periphery of the forming discs. The geometry referred to is the peripheral cross-sectional area of the disc. In the form shown in FIGURE 6, where a wave-like or sinusoidal wave crosssectional sheet is being formed, the forming discs have rounded peripheries; whereas, for instance, in the sharp or triangulated form shown in FIGURE 7, the peripheries of the forming discs would not be rounded but would be formed to a point having the sloping edges conforming to the transverse configuration of the desired sheet.

In order to obtain uniform corrugation depth, generally uniform pressure must be applied. When it is desired that a sheet be produced which will vary in Rockwell hardness transversely of the sheet, i.e., a sheet with an rating on one side and a rating on the other side, it is axiomatic that such practice would require a greater pressure on the side with the 100 rating than on the side with the 80 rating. This can be effected by shimming the top roll of each pair of rollers in the manner shown in FIGURE 8. The shim 50 has been exaggerated in FIG- URE 8 to show its presence, but it will be appreciated that this shim in practice would be very thin in order to vary the pressure to a very slight degree to obtain the difierential Rockwell values. In practice I have found that the Rockwell hardness will vary from coil to coil and sometimes per lineal foot of a given coil, some coils running several hundred feet with a Rockwell rating of 80, then the next 100 feet or so with a Rockwell rating of 100. This industrial practice is not unusual. With the present invention I provide a machine which can be adjusted to compensate for the variations in Rockwell values either transversely or on a lineal foot basis.

The method of the present invention is practiced upon sheet metal and consists in subjecting the sheet metal to a succession of deforming rolling pressures of progressively increasing increment until the desired end shape is attained without tearing, fanning or otherwise setting up undue stresses in the metal which, because of fatigue characteristics, will give a short life to the corrugated sheet. By subjecting the sheet formed to a final roll, the pressure of which does not exceed the final forming pressure rolls, a sheet of uniform corrugations which will lie longitudinally flat is attained. A sheet corrugated in accordance with the invention will have a stable unstressed or relaxed molecular structure which will give a longer life, particularly where the sheet may be subjected to physical blows or mechanical loading.

When applying the apparatus of the present invention, the length of the sheet corrugated is limited only by the length of the roll of the sheet metal fed through the forming stations and lengths consistent with requirements of transportation.

Although I have disclosed herein the best forms of the invention known to me at this time, I reserve the right to all such modifications and changes as may come within the scope of the following claims.

What I claim is:

1. The herein described process for forming corrugations in lengths of sheet metal which after corrugation lie flat for stacking and shipping consisting of passing the sheet metal in sequence through an initial and a number of subsequent rolling stations in which the depth of the corrugations are finally formed by progressive relatively small increments of rolling thrust directed generally perpendicularly to the plane of said metal sheet at each of the succeeding stations, maintaining the depth and pressure at the last rolling station at least not greater than the depth and pressure of the preceding rolling station.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the pressure on the same side of each rolling station slightly exceeds the pressure on the other side whereby the Rockwell hardness of the metal being corrugated may be varied transversely of the sheet.

3. In an apparatus for corrugating sheet metal, means for forming grooves in said sheet metal of progressively increasing depth, said means consisting of a series of opposed pairs of forming rollers having mating axially undulating surfaces, the rollers of each pair having an overlap greater than the overlap of the rollers of the preceding pair, and means for preventing curling of the sheet, said means comprising a pair of opposed rollers having an overlap no greater than the overlap of the final pair of 6 forming rollers, said last-mentioned pair of opposed rollers being positioned in immediate sequential relationship with the last opposed pair of forming rollers.

4. An apparatus for corrugating sheet metal as claimed in claim 3 further comprising means operatively connected to one roll of each opposed pair of forming rolls for varying the pressure transversely of the line of rolling stations to produce a corrugated sheet having a varying Rockwell hardness transversely of the sheet.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 23,774 Montgomery Apr. 26, 1859 694,722 Brooker Mar. 4, 1902 1,056,962 White Mar. 25, 1913 1,337,587 Bennett Apr. 20-, 1920 2,708,958 Cra-fton May 24, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 343,968 Great Britain Feb. 27, 1931 867,034 France June 30, 1941 473,568 Canada May 15, 1951 

